If there’s an overused word in common parlance I hate it’s ‘iconic’. Apparently everything is iconic these days. But the James Bond gunbarrel sequence? Yeah, that’s iconic. The white circles moving across the screen, one opening into an inside view of a gunbarrel, Bond walking from right to left before suddenly turning and firing. It’s the perfect way to open a Bond film, with the sequence more or less unchanged since 1962, barring new actors and new takes on the John Barry music. But for something so beloved by fans it’s been twenty five years now since we’ve had a great, classic gunbarrel sequence. Die Another Day featured a terrible CGI bullet firing at the audience (and entering the gunbarrel, which makes no sense – although I guess blood trickling down inside the actual gun makes little sense too) and the five Craig films featured a new version every time, with none of them getting it right.
Casino Royale breaks with tradition, beginning without a gunbarrel opening. Instead the first shot is of a boring office building in Prague; pretty exciting stuff. But the opening sequence, like the rest of the film, is great and it makes sense with what the film is trying to accomplish for it not to begin the usual way. This is Bond becoming Bond and the gunbarrel shot is used at the end of the title sequence rather than the beginning, almost as if the scene is an origin story for the iconic sequence itself. The black-and-white cinematography looks great and while I don’t love the very CGI-looking shiny gunbarrel and blood I can excuse those aspects because it leads right into the stylised opening credits. The gunbarrel moment in Casino Royale is fantastic but in my mind it doesn’t really count. I can’t rank it alongside the others because it’s so different and eliminates so many of the elements.
The end of Casino Royale finally gives us the James Bond the film has been teasing and developing, now with his catchphrase and theme music. Bond is back and the prequel elements are over, so back to the gunbarrel sequences, right? Wrong. Quantum of Solace is held back by its unnecessary desire to directly continue on from the previous film, arguing that Bond still isn’t completely Bond and that we still can’t get back to the traditional elements yet. So, frustratingly, there’s no gunbarrel sequence at the beginning. Instead it’s at the end of the film. Sacrilege! And the sequence itself is rubbish. Craig comes storming in, angrily walking way too fast, and the iris tracking him seems like it’s caught off-guard and can barely keep up. He spins, shoots, and blood flies down at an incredible speed and it’s all over in an instant. We pan out to reveal the title of the film but Bond is still there in the ‘Q’ of ‘Quantum’ and we see him walk off, the only time this happens in the entire Bond oeuvre. Like much of the film, it’s fast, furious, and nearly incomprehensible.
But along comes Skyfall, the film celebrating fifty years of James Bond onscreen, reintroducing classic elements of the formula, such as Q and Moneypenny. Surely it’ll have a traditional gunbarrel sequence. Wrong again: it’s still at the end! Director Sam Mendes planned the opening shot to be an ode to the gunbarrel, with Bond as a silhouette, walking out of darkness down a corridor and raising his gun, and found that immediately following the gunbarrel sequence the shot would feel repetitive. The gunbarrel sequence itself was therefore moved to the end of the film. I don’t like that explanation. It needs to go at the beginning and that should be taken into consideration when planning the opening of the film: how the gunbarrel will transition into the action is part of the fun. Craig seems to be overthinking the walk this time, aware of the complaints of Quantum, so strolls far too slowly, and the texture of the gunbarrel looks terrible.
Words cannot express how happy I was to see the gunbarrel sequence back where it belongs in Spectre. Right at the beginning! It’s probably my favourite of Craig’s gunbarrels, not counting Casino Royale, but I still have big problems with it. The walking pace is fine but what is Craig doing with his arms? He’s swinging the gun wildly with each stride instead of keeping it hidden against his side, which ruins the visual storytelling of him getting the drop on the gunman watching him. The gunbarrel texture itself is good, it’s the only Craig film to use the classic Maurice Binder graphic, even if it’s a little too starkly black-and-white. But there’s some weird extra effects added. When the shot rings out suddenly the lighting drops and Bond becomes a silhouette who stands out far too cleanly behind the film of blood. It looks like Bond against the backdrop of a bloodred moon, like it’s a poster for a horror movie. And then instead of the iris opening on an establishing shot it fades to black before “The dead are alive” appears onscreen with an air of pretentiousness.
Somehow No Time to Die has the most traditional and least traditional gunbarrel sequence. It’s at the start of the film, Bond wears a dinner jacket and walks at a good pace with a hidden gun, and the sequence transitions into an opening establishing shot. Everything else, however, is very different. Firstly, the sequence is different depending on where you are watching the film. Everywhere but the US has the Universal logo become one of the white circles at the beginning, which is a fun addition, but MGM distributed the movie in the United States so that effect can’t happen in that version. The gunbarrel itself is a very shiny and reflective silver rather than my preferred Binder style. There’s also no blood: as soon as we hear a gunshot Bond himself goes blurry and disappears into the bright white light of the background. It begs the question of whether it was Bond who fired or perhaps the mystery gunman, finally besting Bond on their 25th attempt. It could be a tease for the film’s divisive ending, foreshadowing Bond’s death. This theory makes the sequence more enjoyable to me but at this point I don’t want another remixed version. Just give me a traditional opening.
I can hope that Bond 26, the next film and another reboot, will give me the traditional gunbarrel sequence that the Craig era never truly offered. Whenever that finally releases. If you’re wondering why I’m getting so pedantic and writing about such a minor part of the films it’s because it’s been three years since No Time to Die released and there’s been no information about the next film. We still don’t have an actor cast! Please, Barbara Broccoli, give me something to write about, I’m going crazy over here overthinking gunbarrel sequences.
